Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1836-1922 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more

Download & Play

Questions

Newspaper Page Text

'1'1-WEEKLY EDIT.i(N. 'WIrNNSBUI&U., S. C. T UESb A r. APRL 221879. VL.NO3
THE SZEGEDIN FLOOD. 7
-0
A GRAFPRIC AND THRILLING rTOnr
OPA BUtRt.bD CITY.
How the Dykes That Should Have
Saved Served to Destroy the People.
VIENNA, March 18.-Nothing less
thau the destruction of a city of
75,000 inhabitants is the subject,
which urges me to address 'your
readers. Szegedini the ,a ital
thoroughbi'BaZd i n ! ~
plains of tli Ti " se,. e.a e'
Hungarians first chose. o sett e
after emigrating from their Asian
home, the plain being the ideal
country to a people which passed
more than half its life-time on
horseback. Since Hungary has had
an autonomous government great
efforts have been made to regulate
the course of the river Theiss, but
we fear that great technical faults
have been committed in this work.
Faults of the Aame kind wero com,'
mitted everywhere in Europe qntil
quite lately, ,deimany alone,eseQms
to have found the right means'- of
treating rives. Bsdes the eme
bankmentp, in di &nts are.throwq
in the riier's wi d1bgtl sides, y
which it is foicee to deepen its own
bed. Although the river embank
ments were in good order, the
Theiss, by bringing with it stones
and sand, had raised its bed so that
the floods became more dangerous
every successive year. Sno w
melted very early and very sudden
ly in the mountains this year, and
on that account
MANY AvALANCHEs FELL,
as for instance in Bleiberg, near
Villach, where balf a village was
buried and thirty-eight porHons re,
mained dead on the spot. In the
Carpathian Mountains a great deal
of snow fell this winter, which melt
e1 and discharged.eormous JP
tities of water into the valleys. ?f
late the inhabitants of these die -
tricts had become a little careless,
relying too much upon the embank
mnuntu of the railwayn, whicb, dtir-.
ing the last ten years, have been
carried across the pinin in ey?i'y
direction. Now railway -embank,
ments may be useful sometimes, ut
when the water gets int4 thecolm
try they close in entirely.:, they are
dongerous, because thet ;'etain the
water, which finds no oitlet. this
was the case near Szege,in, which
lies in the very centre of railway
embankments. The wate's of the
Theiss,- Maros and Koros had dur.
ing a fortuight inundated the plain,
which was an enormous sea of water,
extending over one hundred square
kilometres. Besides this, heavy
rainfalls continued, and yet the
danger was not immediate. The
inhabitants were busy raising their
dikes and looked hopefully into the
future, when all of a sudden a
terrible storm of the northet arose
which made the water rise in waves
high enough to overpass the dikes.
Of course against the elements in
such an uproar nothing effectual
could be done, although the sol
diers and pioneers were sent to aid
the inhabitants of Szogedin. Only
a few towvns on, the Theiss plain
succeeded in preventing the waves
from flooding thei by workinig all
day and night at their dikes. There
are besides New Szegedin, Szentes,
Czongrad and Vasarbmily. The first
city flooded was Orashaka, where
four hundred houses feJJ. In the
night between the 116h snd 12ith of
THE FL,OODS DORsT IN
upon Szegedin, so that within. a
few hours the roofs of most of the
houses and the tops of .the lamp
posts were all- that could be sepn.
Tlhe great misfortune there, as'
everywhere in the Hungarian plain,
is that few houses are built of real
bricks, the greater p art being built
of bricks made of .lime, afid 'water
and dried in the sun. like Mexican
adobos, which, of course, dissolve in
water. Therefore, the oply houss
which still'skntf~ njipragedj ads
built of reiAl bricks, and those are
scarcely a twentieth part of the
town, in fact, little more than two
htmdred. Everything else disap..
p eared in the ofood. , zegejn num
bered 75,006 'inhabita'nts, according
to the last census, and 9,600 bail d.
dwefling hi.1 Th, e wor of
destruction was as sudden as tWk.. I
rible. All was over ini a few~ hours;
therefore, it is 'dib'on'dd' that great
loss ,of life . wqs, 4peurred.. Tihe
number of the deadlis put at 19,
00,. One hundred r4%Diks
1 usy from morning to night bury
g the dead in the neighbdring vil
o of Szoregh. At first the nqm...
br of boats was quite insuffiint
save the. iuhabtants, many of
whom the danger boll tolled out of
eir sleep. When boats enough
mwe the soldiers had hard work to
w thi'Qugh all the lumber tossing
flout on the waters, and to induce
the frightened peoplo to allow
themselves to be saved, as the
'cater part of them refused to get
their house tops into the boats
thout their poor property, whioh
4uld not be saved under such cir
mstances. ,"Better die tlll of us
n live without our beds and our
4 Tee pots i". was what they all
ad. A very happy circumstance
wqs that the embankment of. the
?uthern Railway remained intact,
sbthat help .could' continuallf 'be
got at Temesvar and the rescued
eghld b6.sent away in that direc
thon. Tu the first hours this could
not be thought of. The desperate
pebple clung to the dikes, climbed
uS9 trees,. filled the few stone houses
to overflowying.
MANT wERR FIROZEN TO DEATH
in the first nights, the wind blowing
fneicilessly their scanty, wet cloth
in Twe4y were found frozen to
df h and twenty-three went mad
fr terror and have been sent to
th madhouse in Pesth. The bravo
'inen who risk d t ier lives a thousand
times to brihg help* were witnesses
of the most heartrending scenes.
Sowhetimes. as- they apprpaghed - a
house,top or a tree to which Orown
ing,people 8hi, these could' hold
on no longer, and dropping into the
water wore drowned before the boats
could reach them. An old man in
the centre of a mound of piled up
rubbish was heard calling desperate
ly f r help, but it was impossible to
ap oacli him, and he perished. A
white haired grandmother was seen
diving for something. She found it
at last -her drowned grandchild,
which she held-up towards Heaven,
laughing hoarsely, a mad woman's
lapgh' An expedition Irom Pestb,
beaded by a member of \Parliamont,
aitivel three days afor t e
cuttietrophe, and he tells us taiat
even then he was a witness of the
most dreadful scenes. A small
rafter was by them, when ',one man
espied a small baby on it, tied to a
divan. The expedition was quick
enh h'in br:ngit g the poor li tl. one
i safety, but its nave not been p L.
fie found and are most likely
d ined. Then a woman sign%ed to
from a roof. When they, an
.p ched they thought she had faint..
he seemed lifeless, so that they
ha o boar her into the boat. She was
not tere ten minutes when a feeble
aill betrayed the awful fact that she
had given birth to a child-a boy it
turned out to be. All those peoplo
were taken to the station a yard
high in water, and some were sent'
away to neighboring towns and
villages.
THOUSANDS FQUND SHELTER
in railway cars which' came from all
parts, but thgea$gart real ined
in the opeb Air, whierd' the cold. : and
wet has made many of them sill,
especially, of' coured, the wonehajid
chuldren. At first, among the other
evils that tormented the poor,
stricken inhabitants of Szergodin,
was hunger, for of course with so
many lives to .save, victuals could
not be thought of. -But very soon
whole itains full of bread, cheese,
meat and wine came fronm Temesvar
and 1Pesth, and brought relief. The
railway companies send everything
gratis, and now lihrge quantities of
clothes are 'daily being carried to
the Southern'etatidnt. Subscriptions
were opened the very next day and
have had fne i'ssults. Thus the
.Pethe' .Lloyd,a German Hunga
rian paper, received 88,000 forins
and the Neue Pric Presse, of Vien
tnt, 15,000 forins, although it is the
organ least friendly to .Hungary.
Berlin has,sent 15,000 marks and all
the' instituxtiomis in .the country,
societies, unions and the like, have
s'ent large sums. The Emperor, in
his own and the~ Empress'- name,
gave 60,000 forins and, went to
Szegedin in person -to" 'assure the
inpghb tants that every 4hing within
haIm apower would bb d6ne for
them. Th 59eror' *ad nioved to
tears by the inisery. Around, and. he
told the people the' Empreoss would
return front her hunthng tO gin
[reband sooner than she had intend.
ed, on aconnt of the syl diQ4..
Ma4 hl , Wlcddnba'
money in offce. On the contrary,
#'hIle Pi-bsiddnt,. he ex(ended *100,..
300 annually -of his private fortune,
md his ino 'estates agre all mf
esolut lrseT gf fro
' oaiIl exeone~ur.
A Reiarkable Rocord.
While many of the Itembors of
the Bonaparte family attained lon
gevity, not one of them approached
the late Mine. P atterson 'onaparto
in this regard except the other of
the world -renowned sclier. She
was a Corsican, eautiful d patri
cian ; was married to Ct o Bona
parte-her maiden name yas Maria
Lotizia R1omalino-at tho ge of 17,
and became the mother o 13 'chil
dren, although her husband died 18
years after their union. Five of her
offspring died in infancy, but the
others became distinguished through
their all-conquering, crown-grasp
ing brother. No woman of modern
times has had so kingly ahd princely
an issue. They were, in" the order
of their birth, Joseph, Kijg of Spain;
Napoleon, Emperor of tihe French
Lucein, Prince of Canio ; Maria
Ann (afterward named Elise), Prin
cms of Lucca and Piombino ; Louis,
h ng of Holland ; Carlotta (Marie
Pauline subsequently), Princess
Borghese ; Anunciata (Carolina),
Queen of Naples ; Jerome, King of
Westphalia, and husband of Botsey
Patterson. She was widowed at 35;
lived for some time after at Ajaccio,
and, when Corsica fell under British
rule, went with her children to
Marseilles, whore she lived mainly
on the pension allowed Corsican
refugees. After her son had become
First Consul she removed to Paris,
and, on his ascending the throne,
received the title of Mine. Mere.
ihe was surrounded by luxury and
pomp, for which' she had no fond,
ness, and her constant solicitude
about her imperial son, and her be
lief that his glory could not last,
renderel her the reverse of happy.
The divorce of Josephine, the terri,
blo retreat from Russia, the exile to
Elba, the final overthrow at Water.
loo, and the banishment to St.
Helena (she was 65 then) were
heavy blows, but she was prepared
for them--they were the fobodings
of her maternal heart,. 'While the
sun of the Emperor's fortunes was
blazing in the zenith, she slivered
under the shadow of her fear, and
her fear was prophetic. She wit.
nessed the downfall of every one of
her children. When Waterloo had
sealed Napoleon's doom, she went to
Rome ; resided there with hor .step
brother, Cardinal Fesch, in winter,
and spent tuo summer at Albino.
S..e bore her adversity with a digni
ty and resignation, and died in the
eighty-seventh year of her age,
leaving considerable property, the
result of careful economy. The had
seen more extraordinary changes,
more making of history than even
her daugn ter-in -law, Mme. Patter
son-Bonaparte.
TOMATOES FIRST EATEN IN AMERICA.
-"Seaweed," a Newport correspon.
dent of'the Boston 'riscript, sks
for further information concerning
the first eating of tomatoes in Amer.
ica. The correspon dent says :It is
a Newport tradition that tomatoes
were firat eaten in this country in
'about 1823, in a house standing on
the corner of Corne anId Mill streets:
Abouit that tinme there the caine here
an eccentric Itadian painter, Michelei
Felicie (orne. He boug;ht a staible
on' the street now called for him,
fashioned it into a dwelling hous3,
and there lived and died. Previous
to his coming, and long after, toma.
toes, then called "love apples," were
thought to be poisonous. A gentle-.
man told me to-day that in 1819 he
brought themn fromi South Carolina
and planted them in his yard, wvhere
they were looked upon as curiosities,
and prized for their beauty. A
charmed old lady also told me to'-day
that in 1824 she was sitting with a
sick person when some one brought
the invalid as a tempting delicacy
some tomatoes. "WVould yon poison
her 1" was the exclamation of the
astonished attendants ; and yet
Corne in his section of the town had
been serving them for a year previous.
As late as 1889 they were regardled
as poisonous throughout Connecti"
cut. Corne liv~ed between the time
of his comiidg into 'America and his
settling in Newport in Salem and in
Boston, and, though Newporters
eling~ to' the traditlin that tomatoes
wore- first eaten here,the may have
introdueed thdni -As'a vegetables in
either or both of those cities. Hec
prided hims4lf on having Bet the
fashio, lf eating- th~em here
"There," he said, "is that potato ;
he: 'odws in thM dark ot' in the damp
eel a, , with his pale lank roots ;Jie
'he f&f-'fvor; ahe liv'es ituder ground.
But the to ate - 1 gfows- rin be'
stib'shine; h' h a fite' roa '.~or'
anpqegts ' dehi beil
w olgm uu linh
Tus CELiEBRATION oF LEET.---It is
curious .to note the gradual modi
fications effeoted in the celebration
of these two universal festival
Lent and Easter-the soason of
sorrow and the birthday of glad,
ness and immortal hcpe. The as
signment of a d'ftnito term of forty
days to the spring or Lenten 11A..
son rook place long subsequent to
the rise of Christianity. The early
Church did not attach much ine
portance to the praotico of fasting,
and in the times of Turtullian and
Iromeus the fast before Easter was
of forty hours, not forty days. It
was extended to thirty-six days by
the Council of Nica, and to forty
days not earlier than Gregory the
Great, in the eighth century. The
Greek Church still has another fast
of equal duration-. naueily, the forty
days before Christmas. It is thus
evident that while Lent depeudo
chronologically upon Iaster its
modern significance as a season of
fasting has no connection with the
Saxon and Teutonic Lenten Tide,
and only an arbitrary connection
with the great festival of the resur
rection. The two cominemorotious
belong to dif orent oycler of re
ligious sentiment and practice, yet
there is an appropriateness in their
conjunction which will secure its
perpetuity.-N. Y herald.
HoRATIo SEYMouH ON PO4TIrANs.
-I always liked politics, 'and, what
is more, I like politicians. They are
a much-abused clase, It is the
fashion to sneor at them, but I
t iink they a 'e a better menas a rule
than merchants and bankers and
other representatives of what is call
ed respectability. They make more
sacrifices and do more unselfish wcrk
for others than business men ever
think of doing, They eultivate a
certain chivalric sense of honor.
Even some wh-o are naturally cor,
rupt will refuse the most tempting
bribes when the integrity of their
party is involved. I have seen
enough of political life to satisfy me
that its influenco is elevating and
not dorading. I would much ratb
er be tried by a jury of my political
opponents who were acknowledged
politicians, than by a jury of respec
table business men who said that
they took no particular intorest in
politics, but ususally voted the Re.
publican ticket, From them I
should expect gross injustice and
prcjadice ten times as intense as my
avowed political opponents would
display. The man who servos a
cause, if it is not a positively bad
cause, is n-ioblod by the service. He
learns to look at men, as well as
doctrines, from a higher standpoint
than mere personal selfishness,
AFTER MANY YEARS -.-A Massachn
setts paper contains the following
statement of a very singular coinci
dence : "The father and mother of
Mr. Stanton, the superintendent of
the Selma, Rome and Dalton Rail
road, killed in the late bridge acci
dent, the one from Ohio and the
other from Philadeldhia, hastened
to him by the quickest route andj
Iwith the least possible delay. One
arrived before lhe breathed his last
and the other after, but in time to
see him laid away in his last resting
place. The parents met thus for
the first time in thirty years. Long
years ago they separated and were
divorcedi, and young Stanton to
his mother's maiden surname. Bothi
his parents were remarried, and to,
make the strange occurrence still
more singular, they wveros both
accompanied on the sad pilgrimage
by their respective mates. And
thus happened probably the strang
est meeting that ever occurred at a
deathbed scene.".
According to Professor Lawrence
Smith, the following are the requi
sites of go)od petroleums First. the
color shou)d be white,i or a Jight
yellow, iih blue reflection-A-lear
yellow indicating imperfeot purifica
tion, or adulteration with -inferior
oil; second, the odot given off
should be faint~ nd not d isagreea
ble, and the specific gravity at sixty
degrees Fah. ought not to be below~
0.795. nor above 0.84; ond -third,
when mixed with an qai olume
of sulphurie ao e of
1.53, the colortbdh
~darker, but, d ~ dtrryg likhy
er. A petroleumstb'at satiades thee@
condlitons in full, 'and poseseses
the pafe Aashing pointL, is pire
People uake 9o' i~ fous
gether ever theso Athe'~ ob
Wy'tkalk abqe ~
S akt womam ] rl
did bwile she r
s.OU'I CARO)XNA N. WO.
The fruit is not lcille.r
Chester is hot for fertilizers.
Newberry needs a fire engine.
Stoe are being taken t.o organize
a street railway company in Oolum.
bia.
Not a single death has oeourred
among the Northern people winter
ing in Aiken.
The uuriber of polls aeaeased for
Lexington county for 187T- T wag
1,93.
Ur. Augnat Nicholson, (fliater'q
oldest inhabitaut, died last Satrday
,aged 84.
Two of Chester's farQera sold
their cotton crop of two years-eacl
ofethon had about eighty hales$,
lust week at 10}.
Northern girls in Aiken, says the
Reoiew, are, sonme of them, the best
and most graceful riders that we
have ever seen.
"Quelquefoia," writing from
Orangeburg, says : Abqnt 8 A'olock
on Wednesday afternoou a violent
rain and' Wvind s torim set in from the
northwest, attended with lightning
and thunder. I4eaka were abundant
and old fences went down- During
the night the wind shifted to the
southegst, and a deluge of rain has
been comi down since. The far
mers ha use put their lapds:iq
planting naition, and it ia feared
that a great deal of work will have
to be done over. The wash to the
fie ds is unnusual, It is generally
admittel th it the early fruit is all
destroyed by the late frosts,
There are few indications of the
late storm along the South Carolina
Rilroad from Summerville to the
Oiy. At L dson's eight or more
w,iegraph poles were struck by
lightning, commencing at the station
succes.;ive:y towards the city. $pnS
of the posts are shatterec,to' splints
era, while others are split spirally
towards . the ground, At Sun
morville there was no incident,
save perhaps thata parq .of
pleasure seekers who had 3ndis."
creotly ventured too far from the
town during the day got a goud
wetting,
A postal card addresse4 to a man
at L3loomington, 1y., was received at
that offio the other day, upon the
back of which was printed an advert
ti'nent calling attention to a rare
opporttnity for a young man of
''energy, enterprise and integrity!"
It was sent back with this endorse
ment of the postmnster : "Try
Bloomington, Ind, Neither s'de t.f
this card will fit any man here-"
THE SpROEON's KNIFE.--A very
delicate and dangerous operetion
was performed at the Cater House
on last Saturday on a young lady
from Lowndesville by Dr, F. I.
Parker, of Charleston, for onlarge.
ment of the eye, The patient was
put tnder chloroform and the eye
ball removed from the socket, the
whole operation nut occupying more
than five minutes. It was a triumph
of sargical skill and Was sw:itnessed
by all the physicians.L: this village
who prongougead it an exceedingly
expert atia successful performauce.
. omebody wrote to the editor of a
'country paper to ask' how he would
"break an otA"i The editor answered
as follows:i '"ft orily one ox, a good
way would be' to hoist him, by'means
of a long chain attaehed -to his tajil
'tothe top of a p2ole-forty feat afrom
the ground. Then hoist him, by a
rope tied to his hors, to ,another
pole, Then descend on his back' a
five ton pilendriver, and, if that doju't
break him, let him start a eoututry
newspaper and trust people for sub-,
scriptions. One of the two ways
will do it, sure,.
A GENTLE lTflT,-wn onw style Of
linmte, with its su dden I3banges Of
temPeratpire-.rain, wind and s~una
shine, ofteti intqrningled in a -i,
gle dap-..it is no wonder .t1hab, our .
ehildren,' frien# 'ad relatives, pro
so freqluently takers from up by
negleoted 'colds 'Taf the 'deaths ' o.
gulting diiWetly 't*od, thisc e4
*h ottle of ~ji e n'4M*ia uyrp
oept about your hompf:lsnQ
4toaus 'will pre'&f4 "*4~ sIk
.less, aslarge doctor's bhlt u..
bae eah,byt the u.6 Tor ~to
fonir doseb.' Foroifii 06hsWt~
9 Hamb6rrhbiges, Peb
soro gh,' Ovoup, or '.a'sk
eof t $:r, 'or ti, *1
N14C0B # 0i0pgondeflgO1tlibi